Being left-handed

I am right-handed, but for ten days my right hand was in a cast, so I was forced to use my left hand for everything. Boy was that hard! Even if you’re naturally left-handed—as only ten percent of people are—the engineered world makes it hard to do ordinary things. My sister is left-handed. Here are some of her examples:

• If you approach big heavy doors with a single handle, it’s always on the right, so you must open it with your right hand, or make an awkward crossover.
• At the bank, the pens-on-chains aren’t convenient for the left-handed.
• In the ladies room the drying towels are on the right. So are the nozzles of gas pumps.
• Travel mugs with lids on them don’t work for lefties. If you hold the handle with your left hand, the opening on the lid is on the wrong side.
• “How to” instructions are written for right-handed people.

On the plus side, lefties seem to be overrepresented in terms of special skills and accomplishments. Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton were left-handed. So were Leonardo da Vinci and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Six of the last 12 presidents were/are left-handed, including Reagan, Clinton, and Obama. Studies have shown that 20 percent of students enrolled in art programs were left-handed, and that left-handed men who attended a year of college are 15 percent richer than similarly educated right-handed men. 

Some researchers theorize that lefties are more likely than righties to use both sides of their brains at the same time. But nobody really knows why the percentage of especially accomplished lefties is unusually high. Maybe it’s from persevering in a world designed to thwart you.

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